Every utility fights a battle against sewer clogs and the potential sanitary sewer overflows that may result. The increasing use of personal wipe products and their improper disposal has worsened the problem. Operators and technicians often crawl into confined spaces or hoist pumps out of wet wells to wrestle with rag monsters. KSB is well aware of this issue and is leading a campaign to “Conquer the Clog.” Water Online spoke with Horst Sturm, vice president of business development for KSB, Inc., to discuss their take on the problem.

Hermanus on South Africa’s Cape Whale Coast is a tourist hotspot. Just two hours outside of Cape Town, the number of holiday complexes being built along this idyllic coast is increasing. The problem is that the city is in a water scarce area. The answer lies in an upgrade of the Preekstoel water treatment plant.

The Water Environment Federation’s Ingenuity Contest awarded treatment plant employees all over the country for their ingenuity in solving problems with what they had on-hand. Which clever fix could be used at your plant?

In the fall of 2015, a small village on the border of Vermont in New York State, tested positive for Perfluorinated Compounds (PFCs), specifically Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA), in the municipal drinking water. The influent levels of PFOA in the water were above 600 ng/L, and thus considered harmful to village residents. Realizing that PFOA was on the U.S. EPA Contaminant Candidate List, the Village solicited the services of engineering firm CT Male Associates to investigate treatment options and provide a treatment system.

The Albert R. Davis Water Treatment Plant (WTP) in Austin, Texas, is one of three water treatment plants supplying drinking water to the greater Austin metropolitan area. The plant was built in 1954 and has had multiple upgrades over the years, increasing its capacity to 118 million gallons per day (MGD).

The Topeka Water Treatment Plant (WTP) — a 60 million gallon per day facility - serves Topeka, Kansas and surrounding areas. Built in 1945, the plant underwent several renovations with the most recent upgrading the plant to its current capacity in 1993.

In 2015, plant officials decided to replace the first of the existing slakers and, after considering offers from several slaker suppliers, chose the A-758 PLUS™ paste-type lime slaker manufactured by Integrity Municipal Systems, LLC (IMS). Read the full case study to learn more.

Known as “produced water,” wastewater from oil production is being used to irrigate crops across 95,000 acres of California’s Central Valley, where many of the country’s fruits and vegetables are grown.

Let’s lift a glass — of water — to celebrate World Soil Day, created by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to recognize the thin mantle that sustains us. Of course, as a water guy, I look at World Soil Day as a time to highlight the symbiosis of soil and water. As anybody who has been to the barren deserts of China, North Africa or the Middle East knows, soil without water doesn’t produce anything.

With a 2,400 square mile service area and approximately 40,000 customers to serve in southeastern Illinois, EJ Water Cooperative was having difficulties scheduling the nearly 4,000-mile monthly drive to complete a meter reading cycle. The rising cost of their aging system and the need to reduce operating costs prompted the search for a new meter reading system.

Finding ways to improve everyday processes in more efficient and productive ways is an important goal for most companies. Many water and wastewater treatment facilities use sulfuric acid when pH reduction is needed, but face safety and process risks as a result. As an alternative to sulfuric acid, carbon dioxide (CO2) offers several benefits.

For some time now Portland has had problems with lead in its drinking water. As in many cities around the country, lead contamination there can be attributed to problems with aging pipes and a lack of testing.

If you’ve ever looked into the ice cream freezers at your local grocery store you can imagine all the different ingredients you’d find at the ice cream factory: cream, sugar, chocolate, fruit, nuts, milk, syrups, and so on.

Drought conditions in parts of the world not normally thought of as arid continue to worsen. For example, in northern and central sections of New Jersey, drought conditions persist due to lack of rain.

At a time when utilities are struggling with cost pressures and crumbling infrastructure, cities across the country are struggling with questions around their leak policies and if residents should get a break on their bills when they spring a leak.

The textile industry in Bahrain dates to ancient times. In the time of Alexander the Great, the country was as known as a producer of clothes seen throughout Arabia and the Indian subcontinent. Modern day Bahrain maintains its strong tradition in textile manufacture.

Over the course of the 2016 presidential election, President-elect Donald Trump has presented to the American public his energy and economic plans, which are geared toward establishing energy sovereignty and increasing the pace of job creation in the nation. In his push for energy independence, Trump has suggested lifting restrictions placed on shale, oil, natural gas, and coal production.

In this Water Online Radio exclusive interview, Fred Wiesler, Global Director of Sales for the QUA Group, discusses some of the company’s key products, including the EnviQ that uses a flat sheet PVDF membrane, and has a .04-micron pore size. It provides ultrafiltration quality water, with the strength of a PVDF flat sheet membrane.

LATEST HEADLINES

Endress+Hauser’s Open Integration Partner Program strives to mitigate risks when commissioning customer plant by ensuring that operators can easily integrate their devices and components into automation systems.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) National Drinking Water Advisory Council (NDWAC) convened on December 6-7 to advise the Agency on a host of current drinking water issues including the EPA's lead rule, new drinking water contaminants, harmful algal blooms, enforcement policies, the recent National Drinking Water Plan, etc.

Using GE’s Water & Process Technologies’ asset performance management solution, the Region of Peel, Ontario, Canada, optimized the timing of its system upgrade with new membranes to ensure continued drinking water safety and reliability for its residents.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has released the results of a national assessment showing that nutrient pollution is widespread in the nation’s lakes, with 4 in 10 lakes suffering from too much nitrogen and phosphorus.

SPECIAL FEATURES

Vaughan's patented chopping action significantly reduces downtime by not only eliminating clogging problems, but also reducing downstream issues with solids. The built-in chopping design also eliminates the need for a grinder or comminutor to condition solids prior to pumping. All Vaughan chopper pumps are available with a written non-clog guarantee, which is your assurance of clog-free operation. Click here to learn more.

PRODUCT GUIDE

WRT's Z-92® process is the most effective and environmentally responsible choice you can make for removing uranium from drinking water and the community. That's because after removing the uranium, we dispose of it at a licensed facility

Measure water from hydrants or non-permanent set-ups. Choose from two models: 125-W and 1125-W for measuring flows to 1125 GPM (4250 litres per minute). Both have convenient carrying handles, locking hasp lids and are available with a number of options.

Grundfos supplies a broad range of equipment and solutions designed specifically for water utility applications. Grundfos is at the forefront in promoting and facilitating energy efficiency and sustainable technology, ensuring that water supply and wastewater facilities meet future challenges and regulations.

WATER ONLINE FEATURED VIDEOS

This video clearly illustrates how successful the wet well wizard is at eliminating FOG (Fats, Oils, and Grease) from collection system lift station wet wells. The patent pending Wizard design is guaranteed never to allow air bubbles to cavitate wet well pumps, to eliminate H2S odor from forming in the well where it is located, and eliminate all negative odors.

The CoMag® system from Evoqua improves chemical flocculation treatment in wastewater and drinking water applications by using magnetite (an iron ore) to ballast chemical floc, resulting in rapid, reliable and enhanced settling and clarification. The CoMag system settles floc up to 30 times faster than conventional treatments, which reduces plant investment costs by enabling greater treatment capacity in smaller or existing tanks.

The I-BOx® Biological Odor Control System (patent pending) uses a two-stage process with a biological stage to remove 99% of the hydrogen sulfide (H2S), followed by an activated carbon polishing stage to remove residual H2S and organic odors. Standard models are available to treat up to 5,000 cfm (8500 m3/h) of odorous air.

The IMS Fluoride Feed System is designed with separate saturator and solution tanks to ensure complete saturation, high reliability, low maintenance, and ease of use. Systems are sized to meet customer requirements.

The MCS odor control systems are single stage, skid-mounted, dry media systems, designed for relatively lower odor levels and organic odors. The media may be virgin activated carbon or any of a number of specialty catalytic carbon media. Standard models are available to treat up to 1,400 cfm (2400 m3/h) of odorous air.

The IMS Lime Slaker Systems provide continuous high volume lime slurries (up to 8,000 lbs/hour) for industrial and municipal process pH adjustment, flocculation, and chemical reaction. The superior paste-type slaking technology consistently produces a higher strength and more reactive lime slurry resulting in more efficient and more economical use of the quicklime. Systems are factory assembled and tested for quick and easy installation, and include options for lime feed and grit removal.

SUPPLIER OF THE MONTH

KSB, Inc. in the USA offers a wide range of services with a first-class staff that is committed to customer service, comprehensive support and consultancy. In addition, our engineers and technicians draw on many years of experience with all KSB products as well as products of other manufacturers. In order to further improve our services offered to customers at a regional level, KSB, Inc.maintains business relations with trusted and selected distributors.
Learn more.

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ABOUT WATER ONLINE

Water Online is the leading source of technical information and thought leadership for the drinking water and wastewater treatment community. If you are an operator, municipal manager, engineering consultant or industrial plant manager involved in the design or maintenance of stormwater, clean water and wastewater systems, you now have access to a comprehensive Web community delivering the latest updates on water and wastewater collection, treatment and distribution technologies to give you the knowledge to succeed in your industry.

In providing this technical information, the site offers detailed coverage of the basic operational elements of the water and wastewater industry: the resource management, supply, treatment and distribution of drinking water and the collection, treatment and disposal of stormwater and wastewater. Water Online covers the many ancillary functions that are required such as: nutrient removal, contaminant removal, wastewater aeration, water instrumentation, utility management and automatic meter reading (AMR), water quality analysis, water membranes, reverse osmosis and desalination, drinking water disinfection, wastewater filtration, pumps, flow control & measurement, stormwater management and sludge conditioning and disposal.

Water Online serves the information needs of engineers, water management planners, operational managers, consultants, elected officials, government personnel and others who are involved in the municipal water supply industry, and the municipal and industrial wastewater treatment field. Reflecting the dynamic and interactive character of the Web, Water Online is the most convenient source of technical, operational, product, management and regulatory information available for the water and wastewater industry.

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